Breakfast · Kerala
Appam & Chicken Stew
Lacy, bowl-shaped appams with a gentle coconut-milk chicken ishtu — Kerala's beloved breakfast.
Appam are fermented rice hoppers with crisp, lace-like edges and a soft, spongy center — made for scooping up ishtu, the mild, whole-spice chicken stew simmered in two additions of coconut milk. It is the breakfast Lonely Planet's 2026 coverage calls Kerala's 'gateway dish,' and in Syrian Christian homes it is also the taste of Christmas morning.
🔥 Why it's trending: Called Kerala's 'gateway dish' in the Lonely Planet 2026 coverage — soft, gentle and impossible not to like.
Method
- Soak the rice 4–6 hours. Drain and grind with the grated coconut, cooked rice and about 1 cup water to a smooth, pourable batter (like pancake batter). Stir in yeast and sugar, cover, and ferment 8–10 hours until risen and bubbly. Stir in salt only after fermenting.
- Make the stew: heat coconut oil in a deep pan and bloom the whole spices for 30 seconds. Add onion, ginger and green chilies; sauté until the onion softens without browning.
- Add chicken, potato and carrot. Pour in the thin coconut milk, add salt, cover and simmer 15–18 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the vegetables are tender.
- Lower the heat, stir in the thick coconut milk and warm through 2 minutes — do not boil, or the milk can split. Temper the shallots and curry leaves in a spoon of hot coconut oil until golden and pour over. Rest 10 minutes.
- Cook the appams: heat an appam chatti or small nonstick wok over medium heat and brush with oil. Pour a ladle (about 1/3 cup) of batter into the center, lift and swirl once so the batter coats the sides in a thin lace, leaving a soft mound in the middle. Cover and cook 2–3 minutes, until the edges are crisp and golden and the center is set and spongy. Do not flip.
- Serve appams in a stack with the stew alongside — tear, scoop, repeat.
Finding ingredients in South Florida
- Sona masoori and idli rice, canned coconut milk and frozen grated coconut are staples at Patel Brothers and other Indian grocers in the directory — one trip covers this whole recipe.
- Florida shortcut: our warm kitchens ferment batter fast. In an air-conditioned house, ferment the bowl inside the oven with just the light on.
- No appam chatti? A small nonstick wok or aebleskiver-style pan works; a regular skillet gives you a thicker, vattayappam-style round — still delicious.
Cook's notes
- Batter keeps 3 days in the fridge after fermenting; bring it to room temperature and thin with a splash of coconut milk before cooking.
- Vegetarian version: swap the chicken for cauliflower, beans and more potato — a Christmas-table classic in its own right.
- Leftover stew tastes better the next day; leftover appams do not — cook those to order.
